GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The study examined the criterion for selecting instructional materials for students' academic performance in Business studies. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted in Ghana. The population of the study comprised all the 681 business studies teachers in Ghana, including JSS 2 business studies students selected along with the number of business studies teachers available in each school. A purposive sampling technique was used to sample 631 business studies teachers and 631 JSS 2 business studies students in 227 public secondary schools in Ghana. The instrument that was used for data collection was a comprehensive questionnaire developed by the researcher to reflect all variables selected for the study, titled "Criteria for Selecting Instructional Material for Business Studies Questionnaire (CSIMBSQ)". Face and content validation of the instrument was carried out by the researcher’s supervisor and two experts in the Department of Educational Foundation in the Faculty of Education, University of Ghana, to ensure that the instrument has the accuracy, appropriateness, and completeness of the study under consideration. To determine the reliability coefficient of the instruments, Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used. The reliability coefficient for the questionnaire and business studies achievement test ranged from 0.82 to 0.98, which showed that the instruments were highly reliable. Descriptive statistics was used to answer the research questions, while independent t-test analysis was used to test the hypotheses at. 0.05 level of significance. From the findings of the study, it was revealed that class size has remarkable effect on the effectiveness of the teachers, thus affecting students’ academic performance in business studies. Since learners differ one from another psychologically, socially, emotionally, and economically, it is also concluded that different teaching methods would suit the different learners’ interests, abilities, and attitudes for improved academic performance. One of the recommendations made was that since instructional materials are very pertinent in teaching and learning, there is a strong need for the school to procure the relevant instructional materials for the teachers to use in teaching.

KEYWORDS: Business studies, Class size, Teaching methods and Instructional materials